When our daughter was younger she was thrilled whenever I would give her a pot of uncooked beans, a spoon, plastic measuring cup, and a couple bowls or pots. She would spend a good half hour just scooping and pouring them between the pots. They have been included in her pretend restaurant.

For less than a few dollars, beans are a great tool in learning, especially when they are purchased in bulk. They can of course be used for creativity as in imagining the child is cooking but take a moment and think of other uses for this protein?

For younger children they can scoop beans from one pot to a bowl and develop their gross motor skills. As they get older and use a spoon they can develop their hand-eye coordination. If they are given a decent size funnel they can even practice using both of their hands to scoop and hold a funnel.

Pictures can be created used different beans and colors for a collage. The beans can be used as an impetus for hearing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

As the children get older they can be used as a math manipulative for counting, sorting, and doing math. Beans can easily be measured by weight. And different colored beans can be used to create a graph.

Different beans can be incorporated into a lesson on different forms of protein. They can be used for home economics by the children when they learn how to cook beans, incorporate them in different recipes and so on. They could even create a bean cookbook with their own recipes, which would then incorporate writing, math and creativity.

For older children, beans can be used as an aid in teaching about different food lifestyles such as vegetarians. They can also be used to learn about different cultures that utilize beans in their diet such as Mexico. There is, of course, the science experiment with growing beans and identifying their parts. Children can learn about the process of picking beans and the countries where different beans grow as part of social studies.

As with the lowly cardboard box, don’t discount the creative and learning opportunities that are presented by such a simple food, the bean. If you have other ideas of how beans can be incorporated into learning please comment below.